Known in the art is a device for switching electrical circuits USSR Inventor's Certificate No. 333, 669; Cl. H03K 17/00), comprising a hermetically sealed duct passing through metal electrodes and insulating layers separating them and partially filled with a conducting liquid (mercury) wetting the surface of the electrodes within the duct.
The switchover of the device from one stable state to another by means of a current pulse that is applied to the respective pair of electrodes, destroys the liquid conducting bridge across the electrodes.
Also known is a device for switching electrical circuits (cf. FRG Pat. No. 1,811,489, Cla. 21 c 33/01), based on a group comprising electrodes separated by insulators and having a duct formed by coaxial holes made in the electrodes and insulators and filled partially with a conducting liquid (mercury) wetting the surface of the electrodes and the duct. Each duct of the device has an individual sealing element preventing the leakage of conducting liquid from the channel and linked mechanically with the element controlling the flow of conducting liquid within the duct so as to close the electrodes. The control element is in the form of a piezoelectric unit producing a compressive or rarefying acoustic wave that alters the position of the conducting liquid within the channel.
In switching multi-line interconnecting channels of communication and information systems where it becomes necessary to employ several similar known devices, the switching cannot be synchronized properly, since each contact has its own control element. Furthermore, the known device has a considerable specific volume and a high specific control power consumption.